LeTellier Cup - for Outstanding Lifetime contribution to the profession of Civil Engineering
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Dr. Jeff Mulliken, PE, Carolina TEA, Greenville, SC (Upstate Branch) Jeff has had a lifelong passion for engineering. A member of ASCE for the past 36 years, he began his ASCE journey as an undergraduate student in the University of South Carolina (USC) ASCE student chapter and is now a full Member of the Society . He pursued his education incivil engineering at USC, and after graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1989, he went on to pursue a Master of Science in Civil Engineering while working full time at Westinghouse Savannah River Company and was awarded the degree in 1994. His thesis, entitled Discrete Models for Foundation-Soil-Foundation Interaction in Time Domain, was focused on the dynamic interaction of foundations for applied and seismic loading. He subsequently completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Civil Engineering in 2011, again while working full time, with a dissertation entitled An Innovative Coupling Scheme of FEM and BEM Solvers. The research was funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) project focused on the advancement of High-Speed Fail technological advancements. Jeff is a registered professional engineer of South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, and other states. |
SC Civil Engineer of the Year - Engineer that has demonstrated the most outstanding contribution to the profession in South Carolina.
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Dr. Paul Ziehl, PE, Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering and Computing and a member of the faculty in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at the University of SOuth Carolina (USC) (Midlands Branch). His primary area of training and expertise is Structural Engineering. In 2023, he became the Director of the McNair Center for Aerospace Innovation and Research which indicates his work/performance is broader than structural engineering. He is also Primary Investigator )PI) of four funded research projects totaling over $7M that address the following divers topics: Manufacturing Advanced Composites for Hypersonics; Synthetic Design of Thermoplastic UD Tape Based Fastener-free Assemblies for Urban Air Mobility Vehicles; Field Trials for Cost Effective Strengthening of SC Load Posted Bridges; and Building Smarter Cities via Intelligent Asses Management. |
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Laura Boisclair, EIT, Construction Project Manager at Johnson Mirmiran & Thompson, Inc. (Eastern Branch). Laura volunteered for the Secretary position of the Eastern Branch, SC Section ASCE in fall 2022. In this role she applied her energy and enthusiasm to re-energizing the Branch post COVID. She overhauled the database used for meeting announcements, managed all meeting announcements, assisted in identifying speakers and Branch social events, and collaborated with other technical groups for younger member events. |
Section Leadership Award – Member of the ASCE South Carolina Section or Local Branch that has demonstrated outstanding leadership and/or service during the past fiscal year.
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Ryan Mattie, PE, Associate Vice President, Johnson Mirmiran & Thompson, Inc. (JMT) (Eastern Branch). Ryan volunteered for the Branch treasurer position in Fall 2022. This is one of the most challenging and time-consuming positions in the Branch. He demonstrated outstanding leadership in support of the Eastern Branch, including modernizing how fees are collected, coordinating the Branch Web Site update, and establishing the "magic suitcase" for smooth execution of Branch meetings, as well as fulfilling all Treasurer duties. |
Section Educators of the Year - Educator within the South Carolina Section Boundaries who has demonstrated excellence at developing the next generation of Civil Engineering Students.
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Dr. Sarah Gassman, PE University of South Carolina (Midlands Branch). Dr. Gassman has been the instructor for nine different courses at USC. Her student course evaluations have been consistently above department and college averages. To enhance, expand, and modernize the Department's educational offerings, Dr. Gassman developed and added four new courses to the curriculum: two at the undergraduate/graduate level: ECIV 531 Earth Structures and ECIV 533 Geosynthetics and Geotechnical Design of Landfills, and two at the graduate level: ECIV 737 Advanced Foundation Design and ECIV 798 Disciplinary Writing. She enhanced these and existing courses with state-of-the-art teaching methods. Through support from her NSF CAREER award, she developed an integrated approach to research and education on non-destructive evaluation of civil infrastructure systems. The focus was to incorporate infrastructure assessment, monitoring, and rehabilitation technologies into the civil engineering curriculum, which culminated in a module of non-destructive methods for integrity testing of foundations. She has been instrumental in creating instructional material for several geotechnical engineering courses. In response to a need to enhance the written communication skills of the Department's graduate students, Dr. Gassman designed and taught a graduate-level course, ECIV 798: Writing for Publication. |
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Dr. Stephanie Laughton, The Citadel (Eastern Branch). Dr. Laughton is a talented and passionate educator who builds great rapport with her students, while maintaining rigorous standards to prepare them for civil engineering practice. She excels in student development, academic engagement, high impact learning, effective teaching, and service to the profession. Highlights of Dr. Laughton's work are summarized as follows: 1) ASCE engagement, serving as Faculty Advisor to the Citadel Environmental Engineering Competition Team (which won 1st place in 2022 competition), 2) teaching effectiveness in civil engineering focusing on freshman curriculum, 3) service to the civil engineering profession, and 4) broader impacts through engineering education research and scholarship. Achievements in each of these areas demonstrate Dr. Laughton's commitment to the development of the civil engineers of tomorrow and tremendous support for the civil engineering profession. |
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| Flood Evacuation Tool, developed by Dr. Vidya Samadi of Clemson University (Upstate Branch). Every year, hundreds of lives are lost and enormous amounts of economic damage are caused by floods, a severe natural hazard affecting critical infrastructure, cities, and communities worldwide. Lack of smart evacuation planning slows down emergency response, causing delays in the evacuation process. This project developed a unique, computationally effective surrogate tool for evacuation decision-making that integrates the distinctive features of machine learning with transportation geospatial data, and hydraulics and drainage qualities. The system can forecast flood stage levels using machine learning across USGS gauging stations and combine the results with Manning's equation results and traffic information, integrated into a big-data web-based Google Earth architecture. The technology has been tested in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, where previous flooding disasters caused considerable damage to the transportation network and increased traffic on evacuation routes. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation and the tool is freely available. |
Project of the Year - The most outstanding civil engineering project completed within the state of South Carolina in the past fiscal year.
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| The Great Falls Dearborn Diversion Dam Project (Upstate Branch). Downstream of the Fishing Creek Lake near Great Falls, SC, two new bypass channels provide boater access and year-round navigation. The long bypass, about 1 1/2 miles, gradually dissipates the released water's energy using switchbacks and delivers a challenging series of rapids with smaller waves. Farther south, the short bypass has a larger drop and a significantly faster flow of water. Three boat put-ins allow for paddler access. This site enhances tourism and recreational opportunities including kayaking, fishing and hunting providing a boost to Great Falls, a community impacted by the decline of the textile industry it once relied on. Existing dam structures were also stabilized through the completion of the project. This project is owned by Duke Energy and the S&ME Energy and Construction services teams provided civil, geotechnical, environmental design, permitting, and construction support for this project. |
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Cherri DeFigh-Price, PE (CSRV Branch). For her outstanding role as S.C. Section Secretary, vast knowledge of the history of the Section, tenacity in getting the Constitution/By-Laws, Travel Policy, and Section Manual up-to-date, and wrangling all the information the Awards Committee and Nominating Committee needs to make their decisions. |